It has been over two years since Adobe released Adobe Type Manager Deluxe 4.0. When it arrived on the font management scene with its' catch all feature set, it put much of the competition to shame. ATM introduced us to such novel ideas as automatic font activation and an intuitive interface. Font conflicts, hunting down of fonts and producing type specimens became nightmares of our past. Many of us would rather go without water before giving up our ATM.
So how can Adobe improve on such greatness? Well, let's see. As per usual Adobe-refresh, menus have been consolidated to make more sense. The Utility menu has been combined with many other functions found in the new Tools menu. Duplicate fonts can be tracked down and removed at your discretion. Also included is the ability to set Activation Properties allowing you to decide whether the font will be reactivated, deactivated or deleted on restart.

Speaking of activation, you now have the ability to activate fonts as you load them into a set. And you now can finally override ATM's decision that a font is damaged. Is it just me, or does it seem a little bit faster?

Now if they would just combine Type Reunion within it, then we would have something.

More information on Type Manager Deluxe can be found here from Adobe's site.

InSummary: Adobe Type Manager gets its much needed update. Although there are few ground-breaking feaures to find (we are talking about a type utility here), the improved compatibility is much welcomed. ATM and ATR have always been plagued with incompatibility problems and this release is really no different. But if you are one to update your OS, you may be forced to update ATM. I would like to see Type Reunion's features moved within ATM as well as some font repair tools.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10
Who can get excited over a type utility update?